| Best practices for school boards include collaborative communication, setting goals focused on student achievement and these characteristics are found in district leadership teams in high achieving school districts. The specific problem is that some school district administrators in leadership do not implement clear communication practices; thus, they are not well understood by their teams. Positive outcomes for districts are associated with a stable and effective administrator and board relationships and if the problem is not addressed, some school boards may be less effective due to ineffectual district leadership. This can also lead to lower student achievement. The purpose of this action research study is to examine school board members' perceptions of their group process, district administrator's change interventions, and modes of communications with members, and the issues for further improvement for the board effectiveness. The conceptual framework was built from several theories of leadership, particularly neuro-leadership, using the best practices for school boards and concepts from communications and cognitive sciences. The administrator used notes and perceptions of the board activity changes, answered a questionnaire, and school board participated in a focus group. The results demonstrated several themes related to question one, which concerned perspectives on change in process and practices: group process and effectiveness, connectedness, conflict, and communication, adaptive leadership, and purpose and mission. Similarly, question two included perspectives on forms of communication: multi-modal communication, communication, focus, and decision-making, neuro-interventions and stressors. Question three concerned further changes that the board advocated and the themes related to question one were apparent in these results also. The implications of the results were that researchers and practitioners be actively conscious of leadership styles such as adaptive or multifaceted leadership, communication modes, and collaboration. Also, issues related to comfort, stress, and best conditions for decision-making should be considered. Neuroleadership is potentially applicable to educational settings. Future research could include examining how neuro-leadership could aid to increase the salience of goals and how knowledge members learning styles may promote better communications. |
